Not sure whether this should be a new 'discussion' to give it a title. On the CamStudio I recently downloaded, I found that *all* shortcut keys used to control on-screen annotations are held up by what appears to be a programmer's testing window. A dialog box with a number pops up. You've got to dismiss this before your action occurs. I think I saw something about the F9 assignment to "Stop" acting this way and being due to be fixed within the following week. Anyway, I'm just reporting that this is still around. (CamStudio 2.7.2 based on Mercurial release r326)

That is fixed in 2.7.3. Nick reverted the download/installer on the home page to 2.7 r319 and that does not have the broken hot keys, so perhaps uninstall and reinstall that one for now. Be careful not to install any of the installer-promoted software you don't want!

Thanks for the feedback. Actually, the home page information (http://camstudio.org) matches the version I reported, at least in labelling. Maybe I should visit Sourceforge? I note the 'standard' issue there is r316.

Heh... due to an odd glitch with the installer software, the version number of the installer gives the wrong info about what version is actually installed now. I'm actually unsure now just what that thing is installing - the "About" box simply says 2.7 based on r319. The one at Sourceforge has the key polling problem the new version was supposed to fix. If you are not playing Minecraft, though, it should not be a problem to use that one.

I have CamStudio v2.0 installed and it mostly runs just fine (except that it won't recognize my sound card). Tried installing v2.7 r 326 and also tried v2.7 r316 and neither will install. I just get the splash screen saying "Welcome to CamStudio Installation Wizard". Based on an email you sent, you said it is doing stuff in the background and sometimes takes up to 2 minutes to see any signs of progress on the screen. I have let it sit for more than 30 minutes with no results. After initially clicking the "Next" button, if I click a second time anywhere in the window it errors out and crashes. As long as I don't click in the window it won't error or crash but it doesn't seem to be doing anything either. The installer is also modal so I can't attend other tasks while it runs. I have tried running as Administrator, I've completely uninstalled my antivirus software, I've closed all other programs and even gone in and stopped nonessential services that were running. Nothing works. I am running 32bit Win7 with 2GB RAM. My C: drive has 70GB of free space.

It sounds like your installer is indeed corrupted. I don't know how you tried other versions of the installer (??) as we only have one up, and actually, it is the same installer regardless - it controls the download of the one we put on their servers.

Watch for an email with a direct link download, though. I don't want you waiting any longer.

As far as the soundcard is concerned, I've never encountered a situation before where the sound card was not recognized. If you leave the settings at Default it should follow whatever your settings in the Recording Devices settings are.

Hi Terry, i know it been a while since i used CamStudio so when it reported a new version i came straight to download with the same result as last time Avira reported adware so i cancelled the download. is there any chance of an adware free download being put on the Sourceforge site for the r326 build

Yes, it seems to always revert to "default device" which points to whatever you have set as default in the Recording Devices audio panel in Windows. It does seem to remember my setting for 16-bit 44.1 kHz Mono and PCM. I'm not sure it ever remembered the device setting in Windows 7.

"Record from Speakers" only works on a small handful of today's computer hardware, I'm afraid. You'll have to use "Record from Microphone" and select "Stereo Mix" or "Voicemeeter" to get it to work frm "Options/Audio Options/Options for microphone"http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/

- Prerequisite: disable all CamStudio keyboard shortcuts.*- See through steps 1-5 above.6. Do not minimize CamStudio's main window at any point.7. Although the systray icon has disappeared, the main window should remain.8. Click record, and minimize CamStudio (or enable the "minimize program on start recording" option).9. CamStudio is recording.10. Work on a screencast, then try to stop the recording.- Expected: use the stop button in the main window or from the systray popup menu of CamStudio.- Result: main window and systray icon have disappeared, so there's no way to stop the recording.11a. Kill CamStudio's Recorder.exe process, enjoy a moment of the screen going crazy, then attempt to recover your temp recording file.

* I usually like to keep all keyboard shortcuts disabled, however I tested enabling a keyboard shortcut for "Stop Key", and mercifully, this provides a usable workaround. Like so:- See through steps 1-10.11b. Use the "Stop Key" keyboard shortcut.- Result: CamStudio's main window magically reappears, and the recording stops and finalises appropriately.- The systray icon will not reappear.

Hopefully that's enough detail to get started with looking in to this one. I've lost a few recordings to this issue, now, but at least there's the keyboard shortcut workaround until a more permanent fix is found.

Thanks!

Win7 Pro x64, CamStudio 2.7.2 r326.

-- edit:

Just remembered that this connects with a slightly separate issue, "CamStudio forgets settings" (which is probably a bit more nebulous).

After stage 11a above, restart CamStudio. It has lost all user-set options and returned to defaults. This seems reproducible (though there might be other paths to this behaviour); I'm assuming it's something to do with killing Recorder.exe rather than the systray disappearance.

This is my first post, but certainly not my last one. I just downloaded CamStudio and on first use I immediately spotted a number of issues I want to address. Some of those issues are bugs, some are more like requested features. Some are (in my opinion) design flaws or design errors.

I will try to be direct and clear in my posts. That is not because I want to bash the program or the makers, but because I see potential in this project and I think this "cracking" (and squeeking) program is potentially a powerfull smooth runner.

My first posts will mostly regard the UI. I think there is quite some work to be done to make this program user friendly and usable in a wider range of use cases.

General information: I have a laptop with Windows 8.1 64 bits on it with enough memory and a strong processor (i7-4700, 6GB). My main activity with CamStudio will be longer captures of a part of the screen. So my issues will focus on that use.

My first issue is not a very important one, but quite easy to solve.

When I start the program it allways opens in the same spot. In my (full HD wide) screen somewhere in the left top quadrant of the screen. I think it should open in the place where it was closed the last time, or, if people disagree with that, there should be an option in the settings to let it do that.

This issue seems a real bug:In the options I can set a custom output directory, and I can set a custom temo files directory. When I set both to different directories, both types of files will be saved in teh same directory, namely the last one I set. So: the custom output directory and the custom temp files directory options point to teh same setting.

Obviously I do not really need a separate temp files directory, but if the option is there it should work properly.

A UI feature suggestion: put the settings for the temp files directory and the output directory in a separate (popup) window, instead of straight in the menu options. That makes the whole thing a lot less "nervous" and a lot more usable. "Standard" windows behavour would look a bit like 2 long editable textfields containg the paths, each with a button "use default" and a button "browse".

The default output directory is named an located quite non standard. I have a more than 20 years record of files in my Documents directory. That makes any new files or folders I don't know the exact name of pretty hard to find. When I looked for my recordings the first time I expected them to be somewhere in a "CamStudio" or "Recordings" directory. It took me some time to figure out they were in the "My CamStudio Videos" directory in My Dociments. I actually had to look in the properties of a created video to find that path.

The naming of the default directories would improve by changing it to "CamStudio" or "CamStudio Recordings" or something like that. Again the issue would be less severe if the location could be found in the output settings window that does not yet exist.

The default location for videos in WIndows is (at least since Vista) not the "My Documents" Directory, but the "My Videos" directory. It would look much neater if the default CamStudio Videos directory would be in My Videos rather than My Documents.

A separate Temp files directory is out of place both in My Videos and My Documents. It polutes the already full user directories of intensive computer users. The place for a real temp directory in WIndows would be in the App Data directory.

However this temp directory is not really a temp directory but a work in progress directory. Because we may want easy access to the temp file in case of emergency, it will make sense to keep it in My Videos, but not as a separate directory. Make it a subdirectory of the main Camstudio Recordings directory.

Output settings, input settings, conversion settings are all totally different categories of settings. In a good working program they are totally separated and independent. In CamStudio the differences are blurred and that leads to plain errors.

The most blatant error this leads to that I noticed so far is the strange equal treatment of output file types. If I click the orange star thingy in the Toolbar I toggle between output formats in a peculiar way. It seems I can just record to avi, mp4 or swf as I please. But when I try to output swf it turns out the program does not record to swf at all. It records to avi and then converts to swf. That is something totally different. Because this limits the possibilities of swf output by any limitation an avi might have this is a very significant difference, that should be made clrear in the way these options are presented.

Simply changing "Record to SWF" to "Convert AVI to SWF" would already make a difference.

And then the connection between these settings and the codec I seem to be able to select. What is the significance of that selection? Why can I choose a compressor codec if in the end I can only record to avi?

The codec determines the output format. I am not an expert in video compression, but as far as I know the output of an MPEG4 codec is never an avi, but an MP4 file or a wmv in case of h264. So why have separate settings for compression codec and for the output file format?

Just make it a package. A certain compression will result in a certain file format.

First recording and then converting is not the same as recording to the resulting format straight.

Make settings clear and meaningful. Think about what a setting actually means and set it up accordingly.

In the video options I do not see any reference to an ouput format, whereas the video (compressor) options in fact define the output format. Bring them together.

These settings should all be in the output settings window I mentioned earlier.

Codecs and compression have an impact on the recording abilities. Some codecs can only record predefined input resolutions. But modern codecs like mp4 and h264 can record any resolution. Including odd numbers, square or oddly shaped screen shapes. Therefore it should always be possible to select a non standard input resolution to a 1-pixel precision.

Many users will not need or want that kind of flexibility. So a setting controlling access to it would be in order. This setting would be in the output settings window together with the codec and video format options.

For simpler formats and codecs the settings could be limited to the standard resolutions we all know, more advanced codecs could allow a 2 pixel or 4 pixel grid, and the most advanced codecs could allow total freedom.

Talking about settings in general: a general setting should be saved as soon as confirmed. I had a crash at some moment (I don't remember what happeend) and it turned out the changes I made to the settings were gone when I restarted. I conclude from this that settings changes are kept in working memory when they are made, and are only saved permanently when the program is closed. There is no real reason to have it work like this. I consider this a minor point, but in my opinion you should just update the settings when they happen. Writing to a file or the registry (or wherever the settings are kept) may have been a tedious and performance consuming process 20 years ago, but nowadays it does not take any significant resources at all.

One point of notice that I didn't find in CamStudio but just for the record: If you open a file for write ALLWAYS close it immediately after writing. Otherwise a crash or problem may easily corrupt the file.

Any error message telling me I cannot do something under current settings should be removed some day. A message like that tells me that there is sloppy programming going on and the program is not finished.

Simply because the person programming the error message is aware of the inconsistencies but still allows them to happen. Such a dead end in a program is a useless end. The end should be connected to some meaningful result. Instead of hitting the user in the face with his faulty actions the program should lead the user through them. One way of helping the user is greying out inconsistent settings once a main setting is selected. In some cases the secundary settings can be automatically adjusted to the most likely consistent setting. But in many cases the original setting should not be changed but the output should be adjusted in a hierarchical way.